lead the former to be industrious, and the latter to be idle, and they operate with the same force in the one case as the other. To sum up our reasoning, it amounts to this. A free population of labourers cause the earth to produce vastly more, and of that production they themselves consume vastly less than a slave population. In either case, the labourers only deduct what they consume from what they cause the earth to produce, as the price of their labour, and the remainder goes to the property holders. The doctrine that a bare support of the labouring classes of society, is the natural price of their labour, may seem to lead to the conclusion, that a poor free labourer can never rise above his poverty. But such a conclusion by no means follows. We have been viewing labourers as a whole class of society, and not as individuals. When viewed as a member of the labouring class of society, each active individual labourer is considered as incumbered with his share of the old, the young, and the infirm, which his labour must support besides maintaining himself. But when we view labourers, or any other class, as individuals, we see that the burden of supporting the weak is not laid thus equally upon the strong. We see strong and healthy labourers, in the vigour of manhood, unincumbered with an equal proportion of the weak and infirm. If such a labourer, so circumstanced; could only support himself, if he could lay up nothing by his industry, the weak and the infirm, and those whom they incumber, could not exist. Therefore, in a country where the price of labour stands precisely at its natural point, where it supports, and only supports the labourers as a class, a young, healthy labourer, who only labours for himself, will be able to rise above his poverty. He will be able to lay up each year, as much as he would have to expend in supporting the young, the old, the sick, and the unfortunate, if he bore his share of these burdens. With good management, the savings of one year become a helping fund the next; the use of which, added to the income of his labour, quickens his pace from the vale of poverty, and in a few years he finds himself among the substantial property-holders of the country.

In further proof of the position that slave labour is expensive, I would ask, where has slavery principally centred? In the most fertile countries, and in southern climates, which grow the

most profitable productions. The reason is, that slavery is a tax that poor soils and cold climates cannot endure. The cost of cultivating an unproductive soil with slaves, is more than the productions of the soil will bring in return. A lazy, negligent, wasteful slave, upon a cold, sterile, ungrateful soil, instead of producing any thing for the support of his master, would starve himself. But cold countries and comparatively unproductive soils are cultivated with free labour to great advantage. Switzerland, Scotland, and New England, are striking examples. The freedom and character of the labouring population, render each of these countries, to which nature has not been liberal in her gifts, populous and wealthy. But reduce the free labouring population (if it were possible) to a state of slavery, and no man can doubt the consequences that would follow. Pauperism and famine would ensue, until it reduced the population to the number which could live in idleness and waste, upon a poor, half-cultivated soil.

Lastly, let me particularly remind the farmer, that the economy, industry and good husbandry of labourers, are not more effectual in increasing the population of a country, than they are in enhancing the price of lands. The price of land is every where affected by the character and number of agricultural labourers upon it. Land without labourers, is good for nothing. It might as well be water, as the most fertile soil. It is the labourers upon the sandy plains of Rhode Island, that make them bear a higher price than the fertile bottoms of the Mississippi. The difference in the price of land in old and new countries, is mainly owing to the circumstance, that the former are filled with labourers and the latter not. Some suppose it is the presence of those who consume the produce of the soil that raises the price of land. But it is the presence of labourers. The produce of the soil may be consumed any where, but a man must be upon the soil in order to cultivate it. For example, our flour bears about the same price, whether those who consume it reside in the county, in Baltimore, or in London. Let all the people of Frederick county suddenly substitute a different bread stuff in the place of wheat, and if the rest of the world continued to make use of wheat for bread, the price of our wheat would experience no perceptible change. The price of wheat remaining the same,

the price of the land which produces it would also remain the same. But let all the labourers leave Frederick county, and let it become impossible to supply their places for half a century, and our lands would be worth no more than lands of the same quality and advantages in a new country. So clear it is, that it is the presence of labour to till the land, which gives it its chief value.

But the price of land is affected by the quality of the labourers, as well as the number in the country. If the labourers are so negligent, idle and wasteful, that they consume as much, in value, as they cause the land to produce, the land is still of no profit to the owner. The value of the land is regulated by the value of the surplus produce which it yields after deducting the support of the labourers. A man's farm, therefore, may be of no value from three causes. First, that it is situated in a new country, where there is no labour to cultivate it, or where the quantity of land so far exceeds the quantity of labour in the country, that every man who chooses, can find land enough to cultivate without paying any thing for the use of it. In this state of things, land, like air and water every where, is one of the common elements. There is more than enough for every body in the country to use as they please, and therefore no body pays for the use of it. Secondly, a man's farm may be of no value, because the quality of the soil is so indifferent, that the labour to cultivate it is worth as much in the market, as the produce which it yields. If a farm is so poor that it takes twenty dollars' worth of labour, at the market price of labour, to raise twenty dollars' worth of produce, at the market price of produce, the farm can hardly be said to have any value. True, the owner may labour upon his farm, and thus procure a living. But he lives, strictly speaking, not upon the income of his farm, but upon the income of his labour. His farm pays him no more for his labour than his neighbour, who cultivates richer land, is willing to pay for the same labour. It follows, thirdly, from what has been already said, that a rich soil, in a country where there are labourers enough, may produce no income to the owner, because the labourers are so idle, wasteful, and negligent, that they consume as much in value as they raise. This course of reasoning is fully sustained by the low price of the most fertile land in all

new countries where labour is scarce; the high price of comparatively poor land at the north, where the labouring classes are the most industrious, economical and thrifty, and for the depreciated price of first-rate lands in Maryland, where the labourers are idle, and wasteful, and unfaithful, because they are slaves.

But it is time to conclude an argument, which the public are not prepared to believe. The period has not yet arrived, for the American public to give full credence to any part of the truth on the subject of slavery. But if slavery continues, that period will come. Our form of government, our whole policy in every particular, with the exception of African slavery, is calculated to fill the Union with as dense a population as ever existed in any country. The limit of population is the means of sustaining life. These means are the most fully developed, and produce their utmost effect in free governments, where every citizen is left in the full enjoyment of his rights, and where he is permitted to push his way by the exercise of all his talents, skill and strength. When, from these causes, the United States shall teem with an overflowing population; when, as frequently happens in all populous countries, some change in national affairs shall suddenly throw the poor free labourers out of employment; when poverty and want, hunger and cold, shall excite them to phrenzy, and drive them to desperation; when to this shall be added the aggravating circumstance, that in order to sustain the system of African slavery, millions of the American poor are expelled the farmer's field, where it is their birthright to labour, that they may live; then will be the time, for truth to burst upon a nation, which thought to reconcile the conflicting powers of the moral universe: A nation which continued to worship slavery as a household goddess, after it had constituted liberty the presiding divinity over church and state.

meC-ས་་-

Customs of the Gold Coast.

[FROM MEREDITH.]

According to the most modern charts, the Gold Coast lies between four degrees and forty minutes, and five degrees and

forty minutes of North Latitude; and from the meridian to about three degrees West Longitude.]

The customs of the Gold-coast are numerous; some of them abound with absurdity. The vile practice of Panyaring, a custom attended with the most pernicious consequences, but confined chiefly to the Fantee country, deserves particular notice. If a person became involved in debt, and was either from want of ability, or from whatever motive, dilatory in the discharge of it, the creditor was at liberty to seize and confine, or, according to their phrase, "panyar," any person or persons belonging to the said family, or even to the same country, state, or town, with the debtor; and if opportunity offered, they were sold, without delay or ceremony. This destructive practice was carried to such an extent during the slave trade, that many innocent persons were sold. For, besides, the customary mode of proceeding in such cases often offered a plausibility or pretext for imaginary debts being contracted, and offences committed. No man had a lawful right to question the justice of the seizure; and every needy person, for the promise of a reward, or a portion of the spoil, might seize and sell without restraint; and very frequently the person, at whose suit panyaring commenced, would retaliate; which never fails to extend it to a ruinous issue.*

A practice is rigidly observed every year, and happens in August. It has some similitude to the custom followed up by the husbandmen, when the labour of getting in the harvest is at an end. It is a season of mirth and joyous festivity; it continues for six or eight days, and a cessation from labour is observed during that period.

Antecedent to this festival, when yams are fully grown, they celebrate the occasion by feasting and rejoicing.

In general, the natives are particularly, and in some places they are especially interdicted from eating yams, until they arrive at full maturity, which is a most prudent caution, for yams,

*

Panyaring is rather a law than a custom; and though sometimes prostituted to bad purposes, is frequently the only way to recover a just debt: if done improperly, it would probably be the ruin of any one practising it.